Flight Behavior

by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper)

In the mountains of southern Appalachia, a restless young mother en route to begin an affair turns back after seeing an unexpected lake of “orange blaze.” The trees in the mountains are glowing—not with fire but with a population of monarch butterflies that have mysteriously alighted on a sleepy Tennessee town. To the awe of its religious-minded residents, the “unearthly beauty” signals the divine. To a team of entomologists, the mass migration signifies something much more disturbing about the state of the earth. Kingsolver sensitively captures the plight of the rural poor, a population endangered both by diminishing resources and by self-enforced isolation. Kingsolver is a former scientist and, at times, the novel lurches toward the scientific sermon. But her keen grasp of delicate ecosystems—both social and natural—keeps the story convincing and compelling. ♦

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